By Prof J S Rathod Dictionary describes `Universe’ as the “whole of space and everything in it, including earth, the planets and the stars.” We are born here. We die here. We chase our material and spiritual desires here. Beautiful and enchanting it all appears in the beginning and we are enthralled and possessed by it. However, that doesn’t last long. Disease, death, vain self-interest driven human relationships, environment of violence and crime, rat race for money and power, environmental crisis, food and water famines, communication technology converting us into insensitive robots who are mere email-ids and mobile numbers deprived of the warmth of physical contacts and loving interaction with our near and dear ones – all these ultimately reveal that every pursuit in this world unfailingly ends up in mental and physical suffering. The core of the Buddha’s enlightenment was his confrontation with the suffering intrinsic to existence....
